Johnson, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Johnson, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Johnson lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Johnson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Johnson — the short answer
Johnson, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 747 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 747 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4b is Johnson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Johnson's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Johnson
Each reading below is measured for Johnson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJohnson runs about 166 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredJohnson sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Johnson is in
Johnson sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Johnson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamoille County.
What Grows in Johnson
Every plant below cleared Johnson's own zone 4b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Johnson?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Johnson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Johnson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 66 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Johnson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Johnson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Town of Johnson Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- VERMONT STUDIO CENTERBrownfields · 800 ft
- Johnson MaverickUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Maplefields at JohnsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- R L VALLEE INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- MEYERS CONTAINER SERVICEBrownfields · 900 ft
- VT ELECTRIC COOPERATIVEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Former VT Electric Cooperative PropUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JOHNSON STATE COLLEGEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Johnson State CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Manchester LumberUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- KATY-WIN MOBILE HOME PARKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Johnson's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Johnson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Johnson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Johnson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Johnson, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 97 sites within ~10 miles of Johnson. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Johnson
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Johnson average
Your land is one point inside Johnson
Everything above resolves to Johnson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 747 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Johnson Average
Johnson Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Johnson
- ●One soil character for all of Johnson
- ●Frost dates read at Johnson's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Johnson's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Johnson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Johnson, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Johnson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Johnson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Johnson average
How we know this about Johnson
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Johnson’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Johnson
When does frost risk typically end in Johnson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Johnson typically lands around Apr 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 20.
When is the first frost in Johnson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Johnson typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Johnson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Johnson sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 28, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Johnson?
The federal record around Johnson shows 199 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (97), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Johnson?
From about Sep 12 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Johnson's scale — its 4b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Johnson's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Johnson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Johnson's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 747 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Johnson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Johnson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 12 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Johnson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Johnson's boundary and the 747 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Johnson's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Johnson checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Johnson's 747 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamoille County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamoille County
- The growing challenges every Vermont grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Vermont
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lamoille County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Johnson's 747 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Johnson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 747 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Johnson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontJohnson sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides